Syed Ahsan, CCIE #23061

CCIE

I passed my R&S Lab exam on Tuesday Dec 23, 2008. It was my 2nd attempt. I had passed my written in April 2007, also in 2nd attempt!
'The Journey' started in Jan 2003. It was a long road and a rough ride, sometimes side-tracked by other priorities or commitments. But I finally reached there.
Why did I choose IT as a career track?
As I was completing my High School in the year 2000, I knew that Computers & IT is an area of immense growth potential. I was aware that Oracle, as an ERP and MIS solution, was being implemented in my fathers workplace (a large air-conditioner manufacturer) and the expert IT professionals were being paid to the tune of USD 400 an hour to get the job done. So yes, as a 17-year-old guy, I pretty much knew what I was going to do in future professionally.
How did this decision lead to Network Engineering as a career?
After High School, I got admitted to Pakistan prestigious institute, The University of Karachi, in its revered Department of Computer Science. My peers were gold-medalists, A-1 graders, high-achievers from the various big high schools, so the pressure was immense. To stay afloat among such good peers, I had to work very hard. Frankly I was led to the decision of taking up Computer Networking as a career because I couldn't otherwise stand out from the crowd of beyond-cool Computer Programmers in my Graduate class.
What resources did I use to prepare?
I took the long road, doing my CCNA in the year 2005, CCNP in 2007 and finally CCIE. I would still recommend this long road because although CCNA or CCNP may not be industry certifications any more but these certs definitely lay the right foundation. I used several resources from time to time, including: Books: Routing TCP IP
Vol.1+2 (Jeff Doyle), BCMSN (David Hucaby), CCIE Official Exam Cert Guide (Wendell Odom), Workbooks: IEWB Vol.2 (InternetworkExpert.com), Narbik Kocharians Adv Tech Workbook, OOnline Classes: Class-on-Demand
(InternetworkExert.com)